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Weirdly, I didn't think he was French, I just assumed it was a lingula...franca...that he spoke.

Yeah, he French. I think the VtMR guide specifies it because the game doesn't as far as I remember.

In the TC game I'm currently running, it's something I'm going to take and run with by toying with Christof's history and place in the VtM timeline. My plan for him is to have been a squire present at the fall of Acre, who survived to become a Saracen slave. Eventually got out of captivity and made his way to Prague, and his search for Anezka will take decades as opposed to a matter of months in the computer game...in fact, I plan for him to have struck out on his own to find Anezka, didn't find anything, and returned to Ecaterina to dedicate himself fully to the Promethean cause to prevent other innocents from falling as Anezka did. It won't be until 1420 that he picks up on hints Anezka is still alive, just in time for the sacking of the castle by the Hussites.

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So what did Helena do to Beckett in the Succubus Club? Just feed on him?

Helene spent their entire evening royally fucking with Beckett then screwing up. Basically, she made him eat his own fingers. She also Dominated him to believe the Succubus Club was active and he was partying there despite it being a ruin. Then she dominated him to never speek of anything he'd done or write it down.

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Weirdly, I didn't think he was French, I just assumed it was a lingula...franca...that he spoke.

Amusingly, French didn't rise as Europe's major lingua franca until the 1600's, roughly. A singular continental one didn't really exist for most of the medieval period at all; Latin or Low Greek depending on which half of the Roman empire you used to be a part of, and later on forms of German in northern-central areas and a hybrid of several Romance languages along the Mediterranean. Italian dominated the courts of the Renaissance era too.

(also the franca part of that meant Franks, but who's counting)

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Amusingly, French didn't rise as Europe's major lingua franca until the 1600's, roughly. A singular continental one didn't really exist for most of the medieval period at all; Latin or Low Greek depending on which half of the Roman empire you used to be a part of, and later on forms of German in northern-central areas and a hybrid of several Romance languages along the Mediterranean. Italian dominated the courts of the Renaissance era too.

(also the franca part of that meant Franks, but who's counting)

Take note also the people I assumed Cristoff was speaking with in French were the MODERN characters.

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The Cristoff being dead thing isn't actually a mistake. The encyclopedia notes him as having been dead, but he was really only in torpor until he awoke recently. The note from Aristotle underneath that entry mentions that it "hasn't been updated" since he got back on his feet.

Also, yeah, Neall tells me the changes to Sascha Vykos were deliberate, so that Vampire's most prominent trans character isn't just a murder-psycho and is a little less ridiculous.

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The Cristoff being dead thing isn't actually a mistake. The encyclopedia notes him as having been dead, but he was really only in torpor until he awoke recently. The note from Aristotle underneath that entry mentions that it "hasn't been updated" since he got back on his feet.

Also, yeah, Neall tells me the changes to Sascha Vykos were deliberate, so that Vampire's most prominent trans character isn't just a murder-psycho and is a little less ridiculous.

I'm of two minds on the subject.

I feel like the Tzimisce have been grotesques for a very long time they have had minimal value at my table save as Ted Bundy-esque monsters for a while now. Vykos being less overtly a Grant Morrison-esque supervillain seems like a good idea.

On the other hand, Vykos is one of the iconic monsters of the game. Making him the poster boy for anything but EVIL seems like a losing proposition.

Still, I suppose a more reasonable character like he was in the Giovanni Chronicles or early Transylvania seems like a good way to broaden his use as an NPC.

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Off the top of my head:
Jan prepping for Gehenna - dead
Anything involving an elder - beckoning cancels that
Sabbat Civil War - Welp that's solved, everyone's in the middle east and aren't big enough to bother with a civil war.
House Carna - Potential split off, hunt for the book of the grave war, investigate breaking of the blood bond, who cares? Inner council is dead and now no tremere can blood bond.
Mithras/Monty Coven - Dead or in hiding

I think the only ones untouched by V5 are maybe Los Angeles and New Orleans? Might be a few others but the majority have either been cancelled or prematurely solved by V5s "cannon".

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Off the top of my head:
Jan prepping for Gehenna - deadAnything involving an elder - beckoning cancels that
Sabbat Civil War - Welp that's solved, everyone's in the middle east and aren't big enough to bother with a civil war.
House Carna - Potential split off, hunt for the book of the grave war, investigate breaking of the blood bond, who cares? Inner council is dead and now no tremere can blood bond.
Mithras/Monty Coven - Dead or in hiding

I think the only ones untouched by V5 are maybe Los Angeles and New Orleans? Might be a few others but the majority have either been cancelled or prematurely solved by V5s "cannon".

Well Critias and Annabelle are fine so we know the Beckoning doesn't affect all elders or even the majority.

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On the topic of Beckett's Jyhad diary and Cristoff, an interview with Neall was just released on the onyx podcast and he discusses his intentions he had for the book and his design philosophy for the metaphor which influenced the descions he made. I'm just sharing this here because I found it to be interesting and thought as this is a thread discussing the good and bad about the book it would be nice to see what was the ideas behind it.
anyway here's a link to podbean for anyone who wishes to take a listen to, timestamps 31:00 for anyone who just wishes to skip and listen to what he has to say about the book.here you go for anyone curious

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Well Critias and Annabelle are fine so we know the Beckoning doesn't affect all elders or even the majority.

I don't see how two unaffected elders translates into a majority being unaffected, especially when V5 seems to insinuate the opposite. And that's part of the problem, the beckonings effects haven't been explained so we don't know who it effects or why.

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On the other hand, Vykos is one of the iconic monsters of the game. Making him the poster boy for anything but EVIL seems like a losing proposition.

Still, I suppose a more reasonable character like he was in the Giovanni Chronicles or early Transylvania seems like a good way to broaden his use as an NPC.

At least in my TC game, post-Dracon Vykos will grow into using its monstrous nature and less-humane plays to lure others into underestimating it, and misinterpreting its intent and goals. The reality will be, it's just as cold, ruthless, and calculating as any other major player in the Jyhad; unlike others who prefer to operate entirely in the shadows, it hides its scheming in plain view and behind a facade of being a mentally scarred and broken vampire caught in a never-ending cycle of lashing out against those it perceives as responsible for its condition. It'll be an interesting juxtaposition with Rustovich, who ends up Vykos' opposite in this regard, and ended up earning himself a bigger role in TC than I originally intended due to the events of the third and fourth story I ran.

What makes this interesting, is Vykos has backstabbed the party two or three times already and exploited them to make gains for itself, but remains on nominally-friendly terms, but Rustovich has given them one or two good, hard punches to the face, and was so impressed by their ability to get back up and punch back that he's actually grooming them, so that when they get older and more powerful, putting them down for good will be all the more satisfying.

I don't see how two unaffected elders translates into a majority being unaffected, especially when V5 seems to insinuate the opposite. And that's part of the problem, the beckonings effects haven't been explained so we don't know who it effects or why.

I'm not sure what's going on with Menele during the 5th Edition metaplot advancement, but if Critias is still in Chicago it's possible Menele simply hasn't summoned him, or has other plans. I vaguely remember in BJD that Troile and Moloch had been freed, or their release was imminent, and I can only imagine the only thing that would sway Menele from his war against Helena, was knowledge of the truth of Carthage and Troile's own role in it -- in which case, I would assume Menele would do whatever is in his power to stop Troile and Moloch. I really want to say it's established Menele was among the many from whom the city's true nature had been deliberately and painstakingly hidden, and that deception was ultimately the foundation of his hatred for Helena even if the immediate cause was her betrayal of the city to the Ventrue.

But, that's just my take on it as someone who believes a poetic, ironic, and fitting end for the story of Helena and Menele is for both of them to realize they had been deceived and manipulated by Troile and the Baali, and at the end set aside their mutual hatred to ally against their true, mutual, enemies, and meet Final Death side-by-side avenging themselves.

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I don't see how two unaffected elders translates into a majority being unaffected, especially when V5 seems to insinuate the opposite. And that's part of the problem, the beckonings effects haven't been explained so we don't know who it effects or why.

Technically, many more than the three elders in Rusted Veins (don't forget Modius).

The following elders are confirmed to be active and running around in V5 already due to Loresheets.

We also have mention of elders making the Camarilla much more exclusive and doing things by carrier pigeon and exiling all Anarchs. I doubt they will be explained actually. I imagine, however. they amount to, "Get rid of any Elder you don't like."